Photo Challenge #2

This weeks challenge is close up photography. This is actually my favorite style. Our subjects this week are nature (also my favorite), water and patriotic. For this I want my subject to be in sharp focus with a blurry background so there are no distractions. A tip is to take as many pictures as possible! Just keep shooting! Especially moving targets. Don't stop to check the pictures. Even though it looks good on the screen doesn't mean it came out sharp!

Nature:

This picture was actually taken out my back window. I noticed the dragonfly so I went and grabbed my camera.

Tip:
Always keep you camera handy!!!







This shot was taken in our tree out in the front yard. We have goldfinches all over! I love taking pictures of them whenever I can!










Patriotic:


My neighbor, who is in the Navy, just put up a beautiful flagpole. I thought it would be perfect for my patriotic shot!





















It is common to plant red, white and blue "purple" petunias to
celebrate the 4th of July!














Water:


This is a geranium right after watering the flower beds.












This shot was just taken the other morning. I still hadn't gotten a second water shot but I woke up and found that the back door had water spots with the storm clouds in the distance so I grabbed the camera. The trick was focusing on just the water droplets! That was a challenge!!





Bonus: Fireworks




This shot was actually taken a couple of years ago. I didn't get a chance to take firework shots this years so I posted this one. It's actually my all time favorite shot.

Tip: I played around with the exposure at the time. Make sure to use a tripod and the delay. I had my camera set on a 2 second delay and I timed it to push the button as soon as I heard the firework deploy. If I remember correctly I think it was a one second exposure.









Here's another one I picked. I have hundreds of firework pics but some just stand out more than others!



Thanks for looking!!!